Herbert J. Zeiger (b. 16 March 1925 in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

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; d. 14 January 2011) was an American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

and co-developer of the first

maser A maser (, an acronym for microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) is a device that produces coherent electromagnetic waves through amplification by stimulated emission. The first maser was built by Charles H. Townes, Ja ...

. Zeiger graduated from the City College of New York with a bachelor's degree in 1944, and Columbia University with a master's degree in 1948 and a doctorate in 1952. From 1953 until his retirement in 1990, he conducted research at the Lincoln Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He lived most recently in Newton, Mass., and then in Dedham, Mass. He is buried outside Boston, in

West Roxbury West Roxbury is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts bordered by Roslindale and Jamaica Plain to the northeast, the town of Brookline to the north, the cities and towns of Newton and Needham to the northwest and the town of Dedham to the ...

. In addition to the physics behind the maser and laser, Zeiger dealt with solid-state physics, semiconductor physics, and molecular physics. Between 1953-54, he worked alongside

Charles H. Townes Charles Hard Townes (July 28, 1915 – January 27, 2015) was an American physicist. Townes worked on the theory and application of the maser, for which he obtained the fundamental patent, and other work in quantum electronics associated wi ...

and

James P. Gordon James Power Gordon (March 20, 1928 – June 21, 2013) was an American physicist known for his work in the fields of optics and quantum electronics. His contributions include the design, analysis and construction of the first maser in 1954 as ...

, who was then a PhD student of Townes, at Columbia University to develop the first maser. In 1966, Zeiger became a Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

. He and Gordon were the recipients of the first

Charles Hard Townes Award The Charles Hard Townes Award of The Optical Society is a prize for Quantum Electronics — that is to say, the physics of lasers. Awarded annually since 1981, it is named after the Nobel Prize-winning laser pioneer Charles H. Townes.

in 1981, "For

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...

contributions to the successful operations of the first quantum-electronics device, the ammonia maser". He was married to Hanna Bloom and had three children: Joel Zeiger, Susan Zeiger Katz, and Judith Zeiger McNulty.

References

20th-century American physicists 1925 births 2011 deaths People from Dedham, Massachusetts City College of New York alumni Columbia University alumni Burials in Boston Massachusetts Institute of Technology staff Scientists from Massachusetts Scientists from the Bronx Fellows of the American Physical Society {{US-physicist-stub